Ethan Black

@kgoetz @alerque @skroobler I still have one and I use it regularly while at college. It's the Dell #D630 . I have a floppy disk drive in the module bay, which I use for taking college notes.

@256 @frameworkcomputer

@rl_dane I really think that caps lock should have been a top-row key. (Although I get the historical reasons, involving and the original shift lock key placement. It physically held down shift, right? [Anyone on the #typewriters tag know?] )

I LOVE what Apple did to the Esc key, making it the size of Tab. I think if the Esc key were this large, putting it at the top-left feels right for the semantics of a 'back'/'cancel' button.
I get Vim/Vi users might not like that though 😀

#keyboards

@256 Aaand I've never heard of them. :/

It's like an earlier, failed I guess? attempt at what @frameworkcomputer does.

#Framework #FrameworkComputer

RE: https://mastodon.social/@keyboards/116527989069645944

Both "BS" and "Backspace"? I wonder what that's for.

#keyboards

A nice article on how to ask good #forum questions.

http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

#StackExchange

"There’s a unique kind of respect for someone who treats the machine like a tailored instrument rather than a black box"

Quote from (XformerlyknownasTwitter link, sorry) https://x.com/GenAIDL/status/2051377559804207208 .

See this #TheStoryOfMel website. https://melsloop.com/

#lowLevel #LaurieWired #programming #blackBox

Copy Fail: Every #Linux distro from 2017 to 2026 is vulnerable. Gives a root shell.

Stuff like this makes me upset about current tech. It would be better if OS codebases were smaller. They're unmanageably large nowadays. #digitalMinimalism #KeepItSimpleAndStupid

This #vuln was surfaced with #AI , in reportedly about *an hour of scanning*! https://xint.io #XInt

#CopyFail

@Gammitin Shaped kinda like a #BeBox .

RE: https://mastodon.online/@danjmcs/116485518365083052

They also have a nice website redesign. It's a lot cleaner IMO and pretty :)

https://commodore.net/

#C64U #Commodore

RE: https://mastodon.social/@keyboards/116484578081746002

IDK if the #VIC20 was different, but I love how the #Commodore64 had an NMI key (Non-Maskable Interrupt), the RESTORE key. That means that when you press RESTORE, an interrupt is triggered which can't be ignored in hardware by the computer. (Of course, it can be ignored in software with, I guess, an RTI instruction? #6502 )

I've used it to mess with programs that are timing-heavy (like demos) or don't seem to have the interrupt vector set up :) #C64U

@CM30 Imagine a #SmashBros movie :)

#techMemes #VeggieTales

#malloc and #realloc being able to return NULL when given a size of 0 is a discontinuity in design, and a mistake, IMO.

#programming #C #libc

@rl_dane It handled it OK, actually. Definitely slowed down :D

I was wondering if it would give me #WindowsXP 's warning about opening too many programs at once, when I once accidentally did the thing I did on purpose here but on Windows XP.

RE: https://mas.to/@swelljoe/116450770140914958

This makes me so happy :)

#platformDecay #technology #dontPutComputersInEverything

I see that #LinkedIn is trying to loop me into a locked-down platform. (No surprise, obviously, coming from #Microsoft ).

#remoteAttestation #platformDecay

I love the room the #C #programmingLanguage gives me to do advanced things.

I think for general programming, something a lot safer is better, and I think the flexibility of C lends itself to bad patterns sometimes, but it has its place.

#CLang #programming

The #XScreensaverCollection was a really nice way to stimulate my creativity when I was younger.

#Linux #learning #XServer #XScreensaver

RE: https://mastodon.social/@keyboards/116409080633916664

Moving Caps lock away from its modern location and replacing it with Ctrl is always a #based move. And I like how having the function keys on the left balances out a little the usual imbalance the #numpad introduces.

As usual, I love the huge enter key (deserving!) but the tiny backspace is probably a deal-breaker.

#keyboards #computers

RE: https://mastodon.social/@keyboards/116390206221733192

Imagine lugging this to your #college class and casually taking notes in, like, a Web development class :)

#classy

@hellomiakoda And the mnemonic R E I S U B: Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken.

#SysRq

I feel like #MDN is carrying #WWW documentation...

#Mozilla #documentation #standards

https://x.com/kevinbolk/status/2038747614540181556/history

#Twitter #hiveMind #politics #hate #division #community

RE: https://mastodon.social/@keyboards/116372275744173493

A pretty clean keyboard layout... but having Return and Enter separate is quite interesting. Does pressing one or the other guarantee a newline in fields where pressing Return "submits"? #ClassicMacOS #retrocomputing

#keyboards

RE: https://mastodon.social/@keyboards/116370388107740463

Looks very utilitarian. I love the separate #numpad . But IDK about that Fn key placement in the middle of the spacebar....

#keyboards

@rl_dane If I wanted to make an OS, what would you think I should use as a basis for a UI?
Do you have a link to an emulator of your favorite OS, UI-wise? I know there's that one Mac OS X system you harp on, but that's probably a bit complicated.
Every time I spend some time playing around with #ClassicMacOS , I end up refreshed (thanks for the System 1.0 link above). Elegant.

@rl_dane An abacus has significant design advantages over #libadwaita so long as the theme is joined with the TK :')

By theme, I'm talking about basic things like widget sizes, basic background/foreground color selections, and disabling #ClientSideDecorations . I understand developers' frustration with full custom CSS, but missing these things is sad.

#GNOME #theming

April Fools, but this may become reality soon enough. Keep fighting, and keep on introducing your friends to open-source tech 🦾

#aprilFools #openSource #ageVerification #platformDecay

Updates need to be great enough to justify changing the #software at all.

#platformDecay

#Claude found a #0day in #Vim and #Emacs . For Vim, Claude was prompted with "Somebody told me there is an RCE 0-day when you open a file. Find it." then "Generate a PoC file." then "Can you verify it?".

https://blog.calif.io/p/mad-bugs-vim-vs-emacs-vs-claude

The Vim exploit can be done by merely opening this #markdown file: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/califio/publications/refs/heads/main/MADBugs/vim-vs-emacs-vs-claude/vim.md

#RCE #AI

Proud #doas user. #simplicityIsKey

RE: https://mastodon.social/@keyboards/116258321709740120

#SmashBros for computer programmers :D
Gonna type out a combo

@evan

I find it really interesting that there are videogames which are basically just virtual jobs. There's a video from the videogame developer Masahiro #Sakurai (associated w/ the Kirby games and the Smash Bros games), where he talks about the "simulator" games. https://youtu.be/4SFOO23m-bI
Many games have imitation as a main part of their foundation, even if they aren't a "simulator".

I just realized that #yeet and #yoink are equal but opposite #slang terms.

#language

It is easy for computer programmers to get lost in the complexity of the software stack they're working with, and introduce bugs. It is possible, obviously, to make big mistakes when working with a simple stack. As a matter of fact, if the stack is too simple, errors can be encouraged. But, there's a sweet spot between too simple and too complex which is missed in modern stacks, I believe.

🧵 [1/4]

#techStack #softwareEngineering #digitalMinimalism

RE: https://mastodon.social/@h4ckernews/116206005136764062

I wouldn't trust a vibecoded compiler, but nonetheless this language design is pretty intriguing. More languages need to have something like this `@` "meta-operator".

#programmingLanguage #Cutlet

I just discovered the `od` command. It's a #coreutil .
It defaults to octal..? Based on what I've read in the manpages, it seems to me that octal was a format preferred by a lot of the

To work similar to `hd` (which is *not* a coreutil), you can use `od -A x -t x1z`. You can add the `-v` flag, which works like the `-v` flag in `hd`.

#commandPrompt #coreutils #hexdump

RE: https://fosstodon.org/@golemwire/115075076162218775

I'm starting a Fluxer (Discord alternative) group for my #SubSky computing environment :D

Invite link: https://fluxer.gg/I2P03SBv

#ISA #programmingLanguages

@256 SUPER SMASH BROS SPOTTED

#SuperSmashBros #SSBB

When you're dealing with plaintext data in a suspicious context, consider using `cat -v` where you'd usually use `cat`.

```
-v, --show-nonprinting
use ^ and M- notation, except for LFD and TAB
```

#UnixShell #commandLine #Linux #LinuxTips #cybersecurity

So polite and to the point. Thank you #ApacheHTTPD , lol.

I got on the line with a human, and she said I should try using Chrome. (This was after I said I wanted to not use the smartphone app.) (Note, she wasn't rude or anything.)

I hate #platformDecay .

@btp My preferred method right now is to purchase DRM-free copies of what I want.
#Bandcamp and #GoG ( #GoodOldGames ) are my friends when it comes to this.

That, and my approach to dealing with #abandonware ... which is to just copy it. Since copying abandonware neither causes financial loss nor causes property loss to the IP owner, it is not theft, I would argue.

@IPXFong Wow, glad to hear it!
+ I have those same headphones
What is that blue box on the left? It looks interesting too.
Edit: and is that a serial mouse?? I've always wanted one for my Haiku setup. (A good old Dell #D630 .)

@carlrichell I'm a sucker for a good gaussian blur... pretty.
Reminds me of when I would configure #KWin to blur, and configure QT to have a transparent background. It was pretty, but not well-integated. I'm sure this could be better :)

@theoasisbbs This might sound silly, but I'm really hopeful that #Commodore might eventually make a new #microcomputer platform focusing on being intentionally simple. Perhaps a novel 16-bit architecture implemented in FPGA (or maybe something "truer" like ASIC!), designed to be relatively simple to program in a #lowlevel language. Sounds like a dream to me.

I saw the #Mozilla feedback form going around about #AI . Here's my response.

Link: https://mozillafoundation.tfaforms.net/201

#MozillaAI #Firefox

Fun: try communicating with #i3 / #SwayCompositor using #netcat and an #ASCII table!

$ man ascii
$ man sway-ipc # (for Sway)
$ nc -U "$I3SOCK" # "$SWAYSOCK" also works for Sway

Then enter:

i3-ipc^@^@^@^@^C^@^@^@

'^@' is a 0 byte; you can get it with Ctrl+@ (Ctrl+Shift+2) or sometimes Ctrl+Space. '^C' is a 3 byte; you'll need to escape it so that your terminal takes it literally rather than quitting `nc`; enter Ctrl+V then Ctrl+C.

Once you're done, press Ctrl+D once to send!

#hacking #hex

@dmoonfire @rl_dane

That said, we are in dire need of a good, simple, robust cross-platform application binary format. Something like #Java .

But definitely something more implementable than the Web browser... HTML5, JS, CSS et al have gotten way out of hand.

I really think #Gemini #GeminiProtocol is on to something with deliberately limiting #extensibility .